Tag Archives: augmentative communication

Thanks to Project Vive, our wonderful volunteer partners from State College, Easterseals students will soon be driving their adapted vehicles again. After a year of hard use, the cars needed some repairs, and those repairs were beyond the abilities of our AT Team.

So Project Vive came to the rescue! Braving the perils of the Schuylkill Expressway at rush hour, Project Vive came by van in mid May to transport the adapted cars back to State College where the engineers at Project Vive could repair starters, switches and driving mechanisms. The engineers will be adapting some of the cars with new capabilities such as joystick control. The volunteers took a few other broken items with them as well as the cars.

Three cars have already been returned to the Yaffe Center. We are very grateful for the help we get from Project Vive staff.

We will be working with Project Vive to test out some of their unique augmentative/ alternative communication products. For more information about the exciting work that Project Vive is doing to design low cost augmentative communication, visit their website

Check out the pictures of the Project Vive volunteers loading up our kiddie cars into their van, and some of the refurbished cars upon return to Yaffe Center.

As a speech-language pathologist in the preschool setting, I often use pictures, devices, and language boards to help children communicate and learn language. These are known as “augmentative and alternative communication” (AAC) methods. AAC can teach language vocabulary and structure, and enhance the communication of children with special needs. Sometimes, parents express concern that these visual supports and communication devices will hinder or replace their child’s natural verbal speech. This is not true. “Are we giving up on their verbal speech?” parents ask. “But I want my child to talk,” they say. In order to address these concerns, I recently created a handout in collaboration with a speech-language pathology graduate student who worked with me at Easter Seals. The graduate student researched articles on AAC and its impact on speech and language development. Together, we translated the research into easily understandable terms. The end result was a parent-friendly, research-based fact sheet about AAC.

2) I’m worried my child’s speech production will be inhibited if he/she continues to use AAC as a way to communicate. What if AAC negatively impacts my child’s ability to learn speech?

AAC will actually facilitate the development of speech for many children with developmental disabilities (Romski & Sevcik, 1996)

This is no research that suggests AAC will hinder the development of natural speech

AAC is highly beneficial because it may:

Reduce the pressure on the child to speak verbally

This can reduce stress and facilitate the production of speech naturally (Lloyd & Kangas, 1994)

Reduce the motor and cognitive demands of speaking, and focus on the goal of getting the message across instead

3) What is communicative competence?

It is a child effectively communicating his/her message to the listener

It is the central goal of AAC intervention (Light, 1997)

AAC can help create effective communicators

It is about the people:

AAC is just the tool; it is the people and the interaction between them that is the main focus!

It is learned:

Children must be taught how to use their AAC system to be effective communicators

It is a step-by-step process that takes hard work, commitment, and instruction—that’s where SLPs and parents come in!

4) How do we build communicative competence? (5 steps)

Identify meaningful and appropriate opportunities for communication

Prepare for these opportunities by teaching the child who uses AAC

Ensure conversational partners provide support, such modeling use of AAC system

Have the child participate in these opportunities at home and in the classroom

Reflect on experiences and learn through them

It focuses on the 4 purposes of communication:

To express our needs and wants

To build relationships or friendships with others (Light, 1988)

To share information (Light, 1988)

To use social etiquette; For example, “Thank you, have a good day” (Light, 1988)

5) My child has been using AAC in speech therapy for a while now, but I am not seeing any increase in the amount of speech he/she is producing. Should I be concerned?

Each child’s speech and language development is highly individualized, so there is not a straightforward answer. However, research shows that some individuals who are using AAC intervention may take somewhere between 6-25 sessions to show speech gains (Millar, Light, & Schlosser, 2006)

Your child’s SLP will monitor the effectiveness of the AAC system on communicative competence, social interaction, language skills, and speech production.

Your child’s intervention will be changed as deemed necessary, and in the best interest of your child and your family.

Main Points:

SLPs and parents should not hesitate to use AAC with children whose speech is inadequate to meet their communication needs.

AAC has significant benefits for developing the language skills and communicative competence of many children.

AAC can have positive benefits for natural speech production—using AAC will NOT inhibit the production of speech!

Light, J. (1988). Interaction involving individuals using augmentative and alternative communication: State of the art and future research directions. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 4, 66–82

by Sandy Masayko, Director of Assistive Technology at Easter Seals of SE PA

During my recent trip to Australia, I was delighted to meet with therapists who are providing Assistive Technology (AT) and Augmentative /Alternative Communication (AAC) services in Melbourne. On September 1, Anne Williams, of the Occupational Therapy Department at Swinburne University of Technology, arranged for me to meet with occupational therapists and speech/language pathologists from ComTEC. ComTEC is a division of Yooralla, a provider of services for people with disabilities in Melbourne. As we talked, we discovered that share many similar concerns in providing AT and AAC services and devices, including funding, planning instruction and problem solving with families and caregivers. Anne also invited faculty members from Swinburne in the areas of Occupational Therapy, Robotics and Biomedical Engineering to learn about the work we are doing in eye gaze technology with young children.

The following day, September 2, I made a short presentation to occupational therapists at the Vic-Tas (Victoria and Tasmania) Regional Conference of Occupational Therapy in Melbourne. The paper, focusing on factors related to use of eye gaze technology with young children, was well received. Attendees asked many questions. I was very interested to learn about issues being addressed by occupational therapists in Australia. The emphasis in many presentations was on self-reflective practice, engaging consumers and promoting participation for people with disabilities.

Pictured in the photo, Anne Williams on the left and Sandy Masayko on the right at the Vic-Tas Regional Conference of Occupational Therapy in Melbourne.